The Stronger Emotion
by Hannielou
Summary: They think it's hate...but could the emotion they're feeling really be love? Seventh year, L/J and MWPP, fluff later, I promise.


                She could kill him.  She honestly felt as though she could strangle him with her bare hands, if that was what it took to get rid of James Potter.  Never mind that they were Head Boy and Girl and that if Lily did such a thing she'd be expelled.  Lily didn't care.  

                It was stupid, really, but she'd gotten a whole parchment into a three-parchment paper for Professor Meriwether on Muggle Electricity and then, James had to go and "accidentally" knock her ink over it, ruining it.  They weren't allowed to use magic outside of the classroom, so Lily had to rewrite the entire thing.

                "Lily, slow down!" Zoë Palmer, Lily's best friend, ran up beside her.  "You're tearing through the halls like a madwoman; I think you've scared all those Gryffindor first years on their way to Potions.  Honestly."

                "Sorry," Lily said, slowing down and adjusting her bag.  "Just – thinking."

                "James," Zoë said immediately.

                "Did you see what he did?  He lives to torture me, I swear." Lily shrugged.  "I guess – DAMN IT POTTER!" She whipped around, just to see James and Sirius running away with her bag.  Several younger students turned their way, and Professor Goode marched out of the Charms classroom.

                "Miss Evans," she said.  "Such language – and a Head Girl, too!  Report to me this evening for detention, right here.  I've got a job for you."  Goode smiled evilly and walked away.

                Lily was gone, suddenly, too, chasing James down the corridor toward the Gryffindor common room.  Zoë sighed.  Lily did this far too often – if Zoë didn't know better, she might say it was because Lily _enjoyed_ the attention.  Yet Lily's annoyance was genuine and she truly did seem to get angry when ink was spilt or her hair was dyed green.

                Lily had to give up the chase.  She had absolutely no clue where James and Sirius had gone.  Probably the dark side of the moon.  Lily smiled grimly and gave the password to the Fat Lady – "Erised" – and walked into the common room, ready to collapse on one of the chairs by the fire.

                She couldn't.  The stupid Marauders were sitting there.  James was beside the fire, Sirius opposite him and Remus and Peter at the top of the horseshoe they formed, a little half-circle in front of the fire.  They were going through her bag.

                "DROP IT!" She shrieked.  

                "Hi, Lil," James said amiably.  "Did you want something?"

                "Drop my bag," she hissed, her voice suddenly low and venomous.  

                "Okay." Sirius dropped it on the ground and Lily heard something hit the floor hard.

                "My inkwell!" She yelled and rushed forward to retrieve it.  It had been a going-to-Hogwarts present seven years ago, two years before the death of her parents and the last really good gift they'd given.  It was a kind of cat's head with a little ledge for a quill to sit, and Lily's prized possession.

                It was broken.  "You broke it," Lily said quietly, holding up half of a cat's head and wiping some ink from the eye.  The venom was gone from her voice; all that was left was a lonely little girl.  The thing to do now – to make them sorry – was to lash out a few phrases about the death of her parents and the gift and then run crying to her room, but Lily was beyond that.  She stood up and pulled out her wand.

                She wasn't quite sure what she yelled, but she hit them all – even mild-mannered Remus and tiny Peter.  They weren't too harmful – jelly-legs, and that kind of thing, but even after they had un-hexed themselves, they stared at her in shock.

                "Lily?" Remus asked.  His hair – she'd made it blue and very, very long – was still kind of tinted and he _would _need a haircut soon.

                "Is something wrong?" James asked.

                "Something wrong?  I'll tell you what's wrong!" Her voice was hoarse and she was screaming way too loud, but that didn't matter.  Nothing mattered.  "You ruined the last thing my mother gave me before her death – the last thing she really thought about, before she got sick and grabbed things off shelves for my birthday.  The only thing I have to remember her by, besides an old Muggle photo, and you break it.  How could you?" And then, she ran sobbing to her room.

                They were speechless.  Zoë walked in a second later and took the scene in quickly.  "Good job, boys," she said sarcastically.  "Next time, maybe, you'll rip the photo."  She turned to go but – 

                "Wait!" James said.  "Did it mean that much to her?"

                "You bet it did," Zoë replied.  "Her father was never one for giving gifts; left that to her mum and when her mum got sick – it's called cancer, I think – she didn't have time for it.  Lily's got a sister, but she's a nasty, always calling her freak."

                "So we screwed up?"

                "You screwed up a long time ago," Zoë said.  "You screwed up that very first day of school when you dropped a water balloon on her head."

                "She didn't get so mad then, though," James said thoughtfully.

                "No." Zoë shrugged.  "Her parents died the summer after second year.  Then she got all moody and studious."

                "Thanks," James said.  It was going to take a heck of a lot of work to clean this one up.

**A/N**:  Okay.  Here goes: I wasn't quite sure about the whole "magic in the dorms" idea, and because I wanted the inkwell to be a huge deal – if she could repair it, it wouldn't be – I made the rule.  I guess it's not exactly like that in canon, but I am writing fanfiction.  Notice that I've given to physical descriptions; think that'll be in the next chapter.  I'm not fixing anybody up with Arabella, though she will appear as Lily's classmate.  I know the Head Boy/Girl thing's been overdone, but it's fun.  Oh – and I promise lots of fluff in upcoming chapters.

Next chapter: **Ten** reviews (please?)


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